There is a Spanish proverb which says, "If you're in a hurry, dress slowly." The gist of the advice is similar to that of film director Michael Winner's advertising catchphrase of "Calm down dear, its only a commercial." There are many benefits to keeping a cool head in a crisis, not the least of which being that careful, considered thought is more likely to yield an appropriate solution than reactionary behaviour - under almost any circumstances. Wyatt Earp did not survive the brutal experience of the O.K. corral by being 'the fastest gun in the West.' He was deliberate instead - and deadly. The inquiry into the Challenger shuttle disaster was given its critical direction, not by NASA and other corporate apologists passing the buck between them, but by the cool thinking, literally, of Physics professor Richard Feynman, who convincingly demonstrated the now infamous 'O-ring problem' using the beaker of iced water on the desk in front of him!

And in the context of missing children?

When I was about 10 or 11 and unusually absent from home one day, my mother voiced her concerns to a local neighbourhood 'bobby' (of the sort that existed in those days). A middle-aged family man, he understood people, children especially. Rather than scurry back to the station just a short walk away, to raise a hue and cry, he simply asked my mother whether I had been anywhere particularly interesting in the last week or so, in adult company or otherwise. When she told him that I had, and where, he calmly replied, 'Then don't worry. That's where he'll have gone.' And he was right.

The McCanns' behaviour in the immediate aftermath of their daughter Madeleine's disappearance was, one might suppose, just as predictable and naοvely spontaneous. Or was it?

It is entirely reasonable to assume that any parent faced with the inexplicable disappearance of their child would instinctively hope for the best, yet fear the worst. Once Gerry had told Kate he'd 'already started remembering cases of other missing children...acknowledging the horrific possibility that Madeleine might not be found' (Madeleine, p.80), 'the fear of Madeleine being dumped somewhere and dying of hypothermia started to hijack (her) thoughts.' (p.81).

Naive and spontaneous, it would appear; especially as the McCanns themselves have, after due consideration, come to an altogether different conclusion about abductees (Kate McCann: "And I think we do know of so many cases now of children who have been abducted and have, you know, been away for years and sometimes decades."). In fairness they cannot be blamed for not realising at the time that innocent pre-school infants are not typically snatched for the sexual gratification of paedophiles. And we have been reminded on any number of occasions that Madeleine was 'innocent' have we not?

So the McCanns' reactions were genuinely instinctive, like Gerry's burying his head in his hands, while those at the table with him formulated a written justification or two of their own recent actions (What on earth did they have to worry about?), or Kate's desperation for the intercession of God (as she tells us on p.78) or home (p.77). A child was missing, 'out there' somewhere, so Kate duly insisted that Gerry should go looking for her, while Gerry, for his part, delegated Matthew Oldfield as a 'runner,' charged first with asking Ocean Club staff to 'phone the police, then later, to check on progress. One minute they're in pieces, the next they're exercising their 'crisis management' skills. Instinctive or what?

Who wore the trousers?

If we accept the story of Madeleine's abduction to be true, then by the time her mother raised the alarm the child would have been missing for three-quarters of an hour, or more. Within half an hour, "All the screaming and shouting...alerted other guests and staff that something was amiss." (p.73). This will no doubt have included Kate McCann's own screaming at resort manager John Hill to "do something!" Meanwhile her personal contribution was to hit out at things and bang her fists on the metal railings of the veranda (p.74). And yet...

"Despite the horror of the situation, some sense of the necessity to approach the crisis calmly and methodically appeared to kick in among our friends as they tried to exert a modicum of control over the chaos." (p.74).

There you are, you see. Even Kate McCann recognises the importance of keeping calm under fire. So why didn't she? Why didn't they? 'Well how would you behave if it was your child that was missing?' Like Kate, 'at about 11.00 p.m.' I should probably have told the inquisitive Mrs Fenn that 'my little girl had been stolen from her bed.' (p.75) if I told her anything at all. I'm not sure however that I would have reacted quite as Gerry did, half an hour earlier.

(From the statement to Police of Mrs Pamela Fenn): "...almost 22H30 when, being alone again, she heard the hysterical shouts from a female person, calling out "we have let her down" which she repeated several times, quite upset. She then saw that it was the mother of little Madeleine who was shouting furiously. Upon leaning over the terrace, after having seen the mother, she asked the father, GERRY, what was happening to which he replied that a small girl had been abducted. When asked, she replied that she did not leave her apartment, just spoke to GERRY from her balcony, which had a view over the terrace of the floor below. She found it strange that when GERRY said that a girl had been abducted, he did not mention that it was his daughter and that he did not mention any other scenarios. At that moment she offered GERRY help, saying that he could use her phone to contact the authorities, to which he replied that this had already been done. It was just after 22H30.

"She said that after the mothers shouts, she had seen many people in the streets looking for the girl.

The mother was not among them you'll notice. Half an hour after discovering that her daughter had disappeared and the mother had not moved, 'urged' by husband Gerry to remain in their apartment, while he was 'running from pillar to post.' Eventually Kate and Diane Webster 'just sat staring at each other.' And with a non-relative given responsibility for the all-important communication with local police authorities, Gerry makes a number of 'phone calls home to the UK, including, at 11.52 p.m. precisely, one to Kate's 'Uncle Brian and Auntie Janet.' Following which the call Kate had been putting off (p.77) 'now had to be made' - to her parents.

Susan Healy: "I think it would be about half eleven - and I'm guessing now, I might be wrong - there was a phone call and it was Gerry on the phone."

Yes, Susan, you were wrong.

And all the while chaos reigns

(From Jez Wilkins' statement to Leicestershire police, 7 May, 2007) "The doorbell woke us up at about 1 am. It was the resort manager who I knew to be John and one of Jerry's friends. I think his name was Matt. He is white, slim, tall with greying hair. From previous conversations I knew him to be a diabetic specialist. We met him on the plane on the way to the destination. Matt said words to the effect that Jerry's daughter had been abducted, and that Jerry said he had seen me and wanted to know if I had seen anything. I said 'You're joking'. I offered help but they said there was nothing that could be done at that stage. We remained in the apartment but could see people around the pool and at the front with torches."

Since 'nothing could be done' Jez Wilkins was well advised to go back to bed. What a pity no-one thought to explain the situation more fully to the torchlight search party. While even later on the morning of May 4, "Gerry and Dave went out again to look for some sign of Madeleine. They went up and down the beach in the dark, running, shouting, desperate to find something; please God, to find Madeleine herself." And all on Kate's insistence. (p.80). We know Gerry was desperate to find something alright. There is a later photograph of him looking for it at the seashore in daylight. And, as the former co-ordinator himself has remarked, he probably wasn't looking for crabs.

We have a certain media craftsman to thank for drawing together the indices of Kate McCann's true nature that have been distributed over time, and for revealing how so much of what the pair have said and done over a five year interval has been anything but spontaneous. 'Calculated' would in fact be the appropriate descriptor. Furthermore, the sequence of cynical conduct towards the Portuguese extends, like a long-chain DNA molecule, back to the very first day, which implies that if there was a stratagem it was not an evolved one. It did not metamorphose into a winged insect overnight, but arrived into the world on May 3, 2007 like a foetus, fully formed.

During a telephone call to her 'best mate' Michelle (at about 3.00 a.m. on May 4) , answered by her partner Jon Corner, Kate quotes herself (p.79) as having said, "No one's listening! Nothing's happening!"

"The next thing I knew the PJ officers were heading for the front door."

Public denigration had begun with the first salvo of the couple's 'phone calls to the UK therefore.

And all that earlier hullabaloo? Well, why were POW escapees so keen to arrange community singing and other noisy pursuits? To mask the sound of digging. The cacophony surrounding apartment 5A on the night of May 3, 2007 simply made it all the more difficult for anyone to detect where the real melody was coming from.

00.40/00.50. PJ Officer V. M. M. arrived on the scene. 00.40/00.50. Deputy Specialist J. B. arrived. 0.30 and 1.00 Estimated time. Two timelines written by Russel OBrien on the covers ripped off Madeleines stickerbook are provided to the GNR officers.

0.30 and 1 am A.G., the owner of a bar got a phonecall from an old customer: P.P., the human resources director from a public English organism.......that they were completely alone and that nobody was helping them to search for her". P.P. confirms she was at Kate's parents house at the time.

01.00 Matthew Oldfield was with J. H. (resort manager) when they knocked on Jeremy Wilkinss door to ask if he had seen anything.1.02.08 am calls Kate (2.23 minutes)

Before 2.30 am (the time he left the scene) GNR Officer J. M. B. R. refers to a situation when he was searching outside, near the pool, that someone from the OC whom he cannot identify, passed him a mobile phone, as a British Consulate employee who spoke in Portuguese, wanted to talk to the authorities.

02.00/02.30, as the child had not been found, PJ Inspector M. J. P. d. L. Q. decided to contact SEF at Faro airport with the aim of alerting them in case anyone would board accompanied by some child.

04.30 and 05.30 During the early morning in question PJ Inspector M. J. P. d. L. Q. received some telephone calls from people whom, with the exception of one, expressed themselves in Portuguese ..... the person who did not express themselves in Portuguese but in English and which was received between, was made by someone who identified themselves as being from the Sky News TV chain.

Thanks tigger. I had no idea that they were on the phone all night. If that doesn't tell us that it was all pre-planned then nothing does...a huge operation swinging into gear. That long list is hard for me to take in!

That list of calls is almost unbelieveable. It was a PR plan on a massive scale.

The substitute theory indicated to me that it was all pre-planned as well. Who could just acquire a small blode girl to be used as a substitute for Madeleine at virtually no notice on a Sunday morning. The creche records indicate that there was confusion signing in the children...shouldn't have been difficult for doctors to sign their own children in without making mistakes.The writing indicates that they signed in other children.

The majority of calls are either made or received by Kate. Jon Corner features greatly. Just so hard to understand, at that stage of the evening and disappearance, just what help somebody in England could be. I could understand my friends with me on holiday contacting people at home to enlist the help of media perhaps if that had taken place the following day, but on the very night it would be hard to imagine thinking along those lines amongst all of the panic and commotion.

It seems to be something that one sees alot when something major happens though. Something big occurs and people are stuck with phones to their ears 'trying to sort it'.

I would have been the opposite I'm afraid. I would have been reluctant to worry anyone back home at that stage until I was more certain of my facts. I would have asked my Tapas friends to help look after the twins so that I could go out into the night and search and call Madeleine's name. I would have my mobile with me in case the police needed me to return to my apartment to assist them in any way I could. Just sitting in the apartment, pacing up and down it, constantly on the phone, would just make things worse for me.

Running around with torches makes no sense if the story of the open window and raised shutters is true. Calling the police would have been the obvious and immediate course of action, followed by removing the twins to another apartment and preserving 5a as a crime scene.

kitti wrote:So between 2am and 930am Kate McCann sent 18 texts instead off searching for her daughter !

Well Kate told us in her book at first light she was out jumping over ditches and searching in bins.........now we can add sending texts to that list as well. What time is "first light" in Portugal at that time of year - 5 - 6 am ?

I'm guessing the Doctor is being sarcastic when it comes to discussing 'normal' reactions and the Mccann's reactions. Even the language 'We let her down' is not normal language!

The child of the recent drunken teachers in spain shows that Children can wander off, yet this was not even a consideration of Kate.Kate felt that her children had possibly been drugged by an 'abductor'.

I just can't get over that they did not search. If it was a child of mine I would have been out looking straight away. Quite possibly all night! You would assume that she had wandered off, as anyone with half a brain knows that predator pedo's are very very rare,and that children are most likely to come to harm by the immediate family, and in lieu of you doing away with your child,the most likely even would be that the child had wandered off.

Medics don't even believe in the side effects of medications or immunisations, despite the list being created as a result of medical trials. They conisder odds like 1 in a 1000 as very highly unlikely!! Yet what are the odds of having your child abducted? about the odds of getting struck by lightening!